


Burn

by Long_Furby6



Category: Naruto
Genre: Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Sunagakure | Hidden Sand Village, minor depictions of violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-07-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:22:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25458490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Long_Furby6/pseuds/Long_Furby6
Summary: Gaara made his first friend long before he met Naruto, although that friend was a bit less than human.
Kudos: 11





	Burn

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah I have a STRONG head canon that Gaara is a cat person.
> 
> Also might be a little OOC but bare with me

_ Gaara of The Sand _ \- the name itself suggested a truly terrifying force of nature, a being who had full control of the environment around him. One who could wipe out millions in a blink, and in some ways, the title was accurate.

Except that Gaara was only a child.

You would expect the son of the  kazekage  to have a good life. The Kazekage was well respected and slightly feared. However, this was far from the case.

The tailed beast sealed inside him only needed to merely exist, one small piece of information, and suddenly, all the villagers and their children were scared of a 4 year old boy who carried a too-big teddy bear wherever he went.

Gaara was aware of the hatred, and he had tried desperately day in and day out to get anyone to reconsider.

He wanted a friend, someone who could be there for him. Someone who would give him a purpose. Someone who loved him.

Someone like his uncle, Yashamaru.

After a particularly cruel day, Gaara had ran and hid in an alleyway.

The darkness enveloped him and shielded him from prying eyes, while he broke down and cried his heart out.

He froze when he heard a small mewl in front of him, slowly lifting his head from the teddy bear clutched tightly to his chest with wide eyes.

In front of him was a tiny, ragged-furred little creature with big ears and a pink nose.

It came up to him with no fear, sniffing his leg. Gaara flinched and it pulled it’s head back, before investigating further.

Gaara held out his hand, watching as the little grey, striped animal sniffed him, before nuzzling into his outstretched palm with a satisfied purr.

He smiled, sniffling and wiping his nose with a free sleeve. 

While he didn’t expect an answer, he greeted it happily and asked for its name, to which it meowed in response.

“You don’t have one? I’m going to name you...” 

Gaara trailed off, looking up in thought. The kitten tilted its furry head and stared up at him.

“Kitty! Your name is Kitty!” 

He picked it up and hugged it, Kitty meowed in response and licked his chin, causing him to laugh.

His tears long forgotten, he introduced his new friend to his teddy bear.

Looking back down, he almost gasped when he pulled back some of it’s grey fur.

His little friend was in pretty bad shape. Kitty was skinny, it’s ribs poking out and it’s fur torn. It’s wide dusty eyes, while happy and content, were clouded over.

He quickly exclaimed that Kitty needed help. It sneezed in response, curling up in Gaara’s lap.

Grabbing Kitty gently with one arm and his teddy bear in the other, he ran as fast as he could without dropping them back to his uncle’s.

“Yashamaru!” Gaara kicked in the door,not even bothering to knock.

“Gaara? What brings you here?” His uncle looked over and set down his tea, giving Gaara a warm smile.

He dropped the bear and held up the kitten, a distressed look on his face.

“He’s hurt! Please fix him!” 

Yashamaru scratched the back of his neck, standing up. “A kitten? Where’d you find it?”

He carefully took the kitten from Gaara, setting it down on the table. It quickly started to sniff around, while Gaara ran up next to his uncle and looked at it with worry. He was barely tall enough to look over the table, so Yashamaru pulled up a chair for him to stand on.

“They’re so thin!” Yashamaru said, running a hand over the kitten’s course fur. 

“Do we give him milk?” Gaara asked, panicky in his tone and expression.

Yashamaru laughed.

“No, milk is bad for cats.”

“Really? Why?”

“They can’t have it. It makes them sick.”

“That’s horrible!” Gaara looked slightly aghast, scratching Kitty’s chin.

His uncle smiled and patted his head. “I’ll go to the store and grab some cat food. You stay here and look after it.”

Gaara smiled warmly. 

“Okay!”

While his uncle was gone, Gaara snapped a stick off of one of the many plants Yashamaru had in his house. He waved it in front o Kitty’s face, who batted at it.

The kitten was malnourished and sickly, but was energetic nonetheless.

When Yashamaru returned, he set down a glass bowl filled with dry kibble mixed in with some canned food. The canned stuff was mostly to coax Kitty into eating it incase the cat was picky, but it didn’t seem to care as it scarfed down the contents.

Once it finished, Gaara stroked it and looked up at the other.

“He’s still hungry! We should give him more!”

His uncle chuckled. “We can’t give them too much at once, that’ll make them sick.”

“Aww, okay.”

Yashamaru went to grab a brush and then slowly ran it through Kitty’s fur, earning a delighted mewl and a deep rumble.

“Did you name it?”

“Yeah! His name is Kitty!” Gaara exclaimed, excitedly throwing his hands up and smiling widely.

“Kitty? That’s a nice name. She’s a girl, by the way.”

Gaara looked at him in surprise, then back at the kitten.

“I’m so sorry, Kitty! I thought you were a boy!” He scratched her ear while Yashamaru smiled warmly and laughed.

“You should get home soon, you’ll worry your father and siblings.” Yashamaru said. Seeing the look on Gaara’s face, he quickly added “Kitty can stay with me. I’ll take good care of her.”

Gaara smiled, giving Kitty a few goodbye pets before running to the door. 

“Bye uncle! Bye Kitty!” Gaara waved, seeing Yashamaru wave back, he headed out with his teddy bear and sprinted back to his own home. Ecstatic with the thought of a new friend.

The next morning, the first thing Gaara did was head straight to Yashamaru’s house. His father didn’t exactly care where he went, as Shukaku would protect him from all harm.

With the amount of times Gaara visited Yashamaru, he didn’t really feel the need to knock. He had a spare key, so he often just let himself in.

Pushing the door open, he set his teddy bear down on the table before rushing to the couch, where a little grey shape twitched her ears and yawned.

Gaara smiled, stroking the kitten and feeling relaxed be her purr. The rumble was calming, like a distant engine or a fire crackling away. 

Over the next few months, Gaara had come to visit Kitty every day. Yashamaru didn’t seem to mind, they often stayed out of his way and neither of them really made a mess.

Kitty had grown into a young adolescent. Her fur was soft and fluffy, contrasting to her raggedy, torn mane in the beginning. She had gained some weight and was now eating a healthy amount.

She was energetic and bouncy, Gaara enjoyed playing games with her as she seemed to understand the concept of hide and seek. She was old enough to be outside unsupervised, but she chose to follow Gaara or Yashamaru instead.

The two seemed to wind down at the same time, and would take naps together on top of a building overlooking the horizon. Gaara had found the place a long while ago, it was quiet and nobody really knew about it, so it was perfect for disappearing.

Yashamaru often joked that Gaara was closer to a stray cat than he was to his own siblings, but can you blame him? His brother and sister, like everyone else, were unnerved by him. They cared for him, yes, but that did not make them any less afraid.

They fell into sort of a routine. Gaara would get pushed away by locals, find a quiet place to unwind, and Kitty would soon find him. 

Gaara’s biggest fear was accidentally killing Kitty.

It was after Yashamaru’s death that Gaara broke down completely.

“ _ You were never loved _ ” 

This made him realize many things. 

He wasn’t seen as human by anyone in the village. Certainly not his siblings, father, or Yashamaru. If his mother was alive, he was sure she’d be afraid of him, too.

The emotional distress this put on the young child caused Shukaku to take some control, knocking down buildings indiscriminately. 

He screamed. He cried. And then he no longer cared. He let his anger run free, and it came back with a new philosophy:

If no one else will love you, you can only love yourself.

In that moment, he vowed to kill all humans other than himself. That was his purpose. The sole reason he was born, and he was content with that.

Completely, perfectly content.

Gaara didn’t calm down until he realized this. And even then, the vines that coiled around his heart only tightened. Twisting and growing, consuming everything around him. 

Maybe vines weren’t the correct way to describe it. It felt warm. No, not warm. Hot. Scalding, actually. It was the kind of inferno that crackled and spit, growing not larger, but hotter. Scorching his very being and boiling his blood.

It _burned_. 

But at least it evaporated all his tears.

In that moment, he forgot about Kitty. The only thing on his mind was the swirling thoughts of hatred that made his stomach churn.

It wasn’t until late that night, or even very early morning, that panic flooded him.

Kitty never did anything. She had been by his side as long as she could have. She didn’t know he was a monster, about Shukaku, or the people he killed. She only knew him.

When she looked at him, she saw Gaara. Not a jinchuriki.

Maybe Kitty was the only being on earth that loved Gaara. If that was the case, at least it was something. 

Gaara didn’t know what to do if the only living creature that loved him died at his hands.

He walked, more like sprinted, down the streets, popping into alleyways and checking every nook and cranny for his friend.

With every second, his panic only grew. 

He collapsed after about an hour of searching. Head in his hands and knees tucked tightly into his chest. He panted heavily, and while his eyes were sore and burned, no tears fell. He simply closed them, waiting for acceptance while his body shook and trembled.

All he wanted at the moment was for it all to just be a dream. Yashamaru wasn’t dead, Kitty wasn’t lost, everything was okay.

The fire inside him grew larger this time, threatening to consume him entirely and burn his throat.

Until a little soft creature brushed up against his leg.


End file.
